Alex Wild on insects, science, and photography
Wow. I swap the standard bug identification for a history trivia challenge and participation jumps not only on this blog but across Facebook, G+, and Twitter! The answer was stated most concisely, if belatedly, by Jesse: Dactylopius coccus, or cochineal scale insects, can be found on the Opuntia cactus in the foreground. The red dye [...]
In a change of pace from our usual identification-based challenges, tonight’s mystery will involve a bit of historical trivia. How so? Consider a landscape from the Rincon mountains east of Tucson, Arizona: I will award 10 Myrmecos points to the first person who can tell me how the subject of this image relates to 18th [...]
Is it Friday already? Crum. It’s been a busy week and I’ve neglected to answer the Case of the Amber Ring. Points go to Julie Stalhut (5 pts) for being first to subfamily and to MarekB for being first to genus (5pts), with 1 pt each awarded to SteveS & Vincent Perrichot for suggesting the [...]
Here’s why I love the internet. Within 24 hours of tweeting a new photo of an odd Australian wasp, I received this tweet back from the fine folks at the NCSU insect museum: I emailed chrysidid expert Lynn Kimsey, a friend from my grad school days back at U.C. Davis. I hadn’t recognized the wasp [...]
I was browsing eBay’s amber offerings when I stumbled across this rather interesting item: It’s a ring bearing a piece of Baltic amber and a pair of arthropod inclusions. For 5 Myrmecos points, be the first commentator to correctly guess the subfamily of the ant. For 5 more, be the first to guess the genus. [...]
It’s very nearly Friday, and I am late in answering the mystery of the squashed mosquito. What was it? 10 points to Jason C for his correct answer of Psorophora ciliata. I’m only 80% confident that P. ciliata is the right species, so I am also awarding 5 points to Catherine Nalen for the congener Psorophora [...]
Several years ago in Florida, I was bitten one evening by a mosquito. I promptly swatted her and fed the remains to hungry Pheidole ants. We do a lot of ant mysteries, so let’s mix it up this week and go for the fly instead. So: what is the mosquito? I will award points to the [...]
What, dear readers, is this? The first commentator to guess the species of this animal will win ten Myrmecos points. The cumulative points winner for the month of January will take home their choice of 1) any 8×10-sized print from my photo galleries, or 2) a guest post here on Myrmecos.
When I first observed Prolasius through my viewfinder, I was surprised at just how… average it looked. It was small, but not excessively. Its limbs were of medium length. It was brown. It had few salient features. It was, in fact, just about as plain as an ant can be. Perfect, in other words, for an [...]
Myrmecos is an ant blog. This evening’s challenge returns to our roots with a straight-up ant identification. What is it? The first commentator to guess the Genus will win ten points. For full credit, answers must be accompanied by supporting character information. The cumulative points winner for the month of January will take home their [...]
A personal weblog by Illinois-based biologist and photographer Alex Wild.
Myrmecos- derived from the ancient greek word for "ant"- hosts Alex's musings about these and other little creatures that share our planet.
Questions? Comments? Email alwild [at] myrmecos.net
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